Henry tips in-form van Persie for Premiership greatness

ARSENAL captain Thierry Henry has no doubt that Robin van Persie can become one of the Premiership’s all-time greats.

The in-form Dutchman grabbed a brace during Tuesday night’s 4-0 win over 10-man Charlton at the Emirates Stadium, to make it five goals in four matches.

Much of the attacking responsibility had been handed to the 23-year-old following injuries to both Henry and Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

With Theo Walcott and Julio Baptista also not fit, manager Arsene Wenger recalled Henry after an absence of seven league matches because of a sciatic nerve problem.

The Gunners skipper put his side ahead with a penalty after Charlton full-back Osei Sankofa was shown a straight red for pulling back van Persie in front of an open goal.

When another spot-kick was awarded late on, Henry had no hesitation in handing the responsibility to his Dutch team-mate, who proceeded to chip in a fourth goal in the last minute.

“Robin is finally playing as a centre-forward – and when he plays there, he shows that he can score goals,” said the Arsenal captain.

“On the penalty, he wanted to take it and I thought it would be nice for him to score, so I gave him the ball.

“If he wants it and if his head is right, like it is at the moment, he can be, in years to come, one of the best ever in the Premiership.

“He is going that way and that is why I let him take the penalty.

“It would be great if he finished as Arsenal’s top scorer. That would be something special for him.”

Comparisons are naturally being drawn between van Persie and his compatriot Dennis Bergkamp, who served the Gunners with distinction before retiring at the end of last season.

However, Henry maintained: “You should not compare people. Dennis was Dennis and Robin is Robin.

“He has reached that level already. Robin is doing it for the national team and is doing it for Arsenal.

“It is up to him how far he is going to go.”

Henry took his personal tally to eight for Arsenal in what has been a season hampered by injury problems.

But the Frenchman believes it is all about how the team perform, rather than whether or not he will pick up another Golden Boot award at the end of the campaign.

“Goals do not matter to me,” he said. “If they did, I would not have given Robin the ball for the penalty.

“I have always said I am not a natural-born killer. If I have to give a ball, I will do it.

“Sometimes people like to create tension. I gave Robin the ball for the penalty and celebrated with him. To me it does not matter who scores.”

Henry added: “I have scored seven in 13 Premiership games. If you look at the ratio, that is not bad.”

Both van Persie and midfielder Cesc Fabregas must serve suspensions for the FA Cup tie at Liverpool on Saturday.

With Theo Walcott (back) and Julio Baptista (ankle) also struggling to be fit, along with Adebayor (thigh), it is likely Wenger could ask his captain to tackle two matches in just five days.

Henry added: “I did get hammered about the way I was playing, but it got to the stage where it was stupid to play with it. “I had to stop and that is what I did. You could see straight away that when I am fresh, my legs are better.”